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Hi Tequila_Flower and welcome!

I've had a lot of "lessons" too.

I've never rented instructional tapes, however I have purchased tons of tapes and dvds. Many were advertised as "never seen before moves" of which the majority of them featured moves that I already knew. Of all the tapes/dvds that I purchased, I would rate 10% of them as a complete waste of money. 60% of them as some good information. 25% as very informative and 5% as outstanding. I also agree with ShadowFox that dvds are much easier to learn from than VHS tapes.

All aspects are important, however I like to concentrate on defense. Everyone has an offense, even an unskilled person has the potential to hurt someone but it takes skill to have a good defense.

Hi AdmiralBob and welcome!

I prepare my students by having them spar according to the rules of that particular tournament. My question is why keep it a secret?

The most important weapons to train in are your hands and feet because you carry them whereever you go. In an actual self defense situation, a club or stick would be a better weapon. Guns and knives are the best weapons but there are the courts to deal with if you use them.

I originally opened my school simply because my friends kept asking me to teach them, however, now I teach because I want to leave something behind with the next generation.

Traditional arts don't teach using these things because they are "traditional", however many modern self defense courses do teach usage of everyday items as you mentioned.

It's nice to know that there's a possibility of having many more years of martial arts ahead of me. Your Sensei serves as an inspiration!

Hi The Kyokushin punisher and welcome!

ditto

I tell kata competitors that the judges have another sense besides sight, they have hearing. Make sure that your breathing is heard when it's supposed to and kiai loud. When the kata has a slow movement, go very slow and when the kata has a fast movement, go very fast. Nothing is more boring than a quiet kata with a monotonous rhythm.

Hi gurpreet and welcome!

Hi Wrath and welcome!

I believe and have witnessed that martial arts changes people's character. (with the right instructor)

Hi Sean and welcome!

Drugs are used as a means to retreat from your problems while martial arts teaches you to face your problems and to conquer them. Everyone faces hard times in their lives and if you retreat from them, the problems only increase but if you face your problems, you will eventually resolve them.

Hi Jack and welcome!

Hi Ali and thank you for joining us.

I use katas as a means to strengthen my entire body together in unison with my mind and spirit.

I believe that this topic is leading to the striking (shotokan) vs grappling (judo) debate again. To be truly good in self defense, it is important to train train in both.

I don't believe in time requirements, however I do believe in ability requirements. I have had many students who had numerous years of prior training in numerous different schools and they performed the requirements for each belt much quicker than the students with no prior experience and I could see no reason to hold them back.

I have done a lot of crosstraining and I have found it confusing when two arts are similar but with some differences. On the other hand, I have found it to be quite beneficial to train in arts that were completely different such as training in a stand up art and training in a grappling art at the same time or training in an art that focuses on punching and an art that focuses on kicking. If you are considering a completely different style, it is okay to start but if you are thinking about training in a similar style, I would recommend that you wait untill you achieve your black belt in your first school.

Hi FlamingoBob and welcome!